Albany parking permit system, red light cam bills signed

Breathe easy, Albany residents, the parking permit system officially has been extended, though running a red light may soon be a tough rap to beat.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law today a bill to extend Albany’s pilot residential parking permit system for two years. He also OK’d a bill that will allow the city to install red-light cameras at up to 20 intersections.

Both of those requests went down to the wire in the state Senate last month, with senators approving them in the 11th hour of the overtime period of the 2014 legislative session.

Let’s see if Mayor Kathy can really get her act together. Can really expect the public to be OK with huge fines, and no appeals process for traffic offenses and then fail to plow or salt the city’s streets and roads this winter.
Time for the Common Council to reject this really bad idea, and get back to the basics of city government – service.
What happened to the request for more PILOT payments for the city from the state – did she blink on that issue? This is the major issue.

Where is the M/C pay Bill (A09344) ????
Stuck in the Assembly since 6/10/14 – thats where !!! Why???
Is this being done so Cuomo can say he cant act on it?
Why is this Bill passed by both Assembly and Senate sitting there while other low priority bills are going to Cuomo for signature ???

Summer recess is NOT an excuse Democratic Assembly members – the clock is ticking on your re-election.
Get on the phone & call or email Shelly TODAY. Especially Assembly co-sponsors McDonald, Fahy, Steck, & Jaffee
Tell Shelly to move the bill to Cuomo for signature.
9000+ M/Cs are watching this inaction and you will pay the price in November if you leave
M/Cs high and dry again Dont even think you will get away with that. We have had enough of your and Cuomo’s BS.

Establishes a special commission on compensation for state employees designated
managerial or confidential; provides for the powers and duties of such
commission.
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A09344 Actions:
BILL NO A09344

Before messing around with the red light stuff, can we start with some enforcement of the parking permit system now that it’s extended? I see cars with expired visitor tags every day and never any tickets.

This is nothing more than a revenue generator. Statistics have shown that it actually increases accidents.
There have also been cases of authorities tampering with teh programming to “cheat” the drivers.

Most drivers I see respect red lights. For the few that don’t, cameras will make no difference. There are many, many ways to make streets safer for all. Any trained urban planner can provide solutions. Problem is, every time there is a problem we address it with punitive solutions, normally in the form of fines that generate revenue, rather than actually solving the problem. This will not solve the problem of safety for pedestrians. We seem to be obsessed with “punishing” in lieu of finding appropriate and rational solutions to problems.

Just yesterday, I was heading East on Central Ave near Westgate. Two cars in front of me ran the Red light near the entrance to Shop Rite. It did not gain them much. By the time the light changed to Green, both cars were still sitting at the red light at Central and North Allen. This is the stretch where there have been two fatal accidents with pedestrians. Though it would help if pedestrians could be bothered to walk a few feet to the crosswalk rather than trying to cross 4 lanes of two way traffic.

Do pedestrians also have to stop when the light is red or not walk when the red hand is blinking?

yeah when they put a 1 or 2 yellow to red zoom through intersection when it was green a second ago…….mayor frump might even consider that, how about timing the lights first so that its not green red green red green red up an ddown central, washington, western its one of the reason people speed to get thru intersections

Safety is another major part of government. And the current status quo re running red lights in Albany is not acceptable. Finally, I haven’t seen anything that indicates that a driver is deprived of the right to challenge a ticket.

Some of the cities that have used automated enforcement have allowed their contractors to use practices that violate the public trust, such as tampering with signal timing, or giving the contractor a fee per ticket written instead of a flat fee. The first can jeapordize public safety to increase the number of ticketable violations. The second encourages the contractor to issue tickets in questionable cases.

If applied wisely, automated enforcement can be an effective tool. Let’s hope the City can learn from the mistakes of others.

I should also note that not one study related to pedestrian safety in urban areas – not one – mentions the use of traffic cameras as a solution. This is nothing other than a money grab for the city and for the (wink wink) contractor. There are dozens of studies published, anywhere from the UN to the Israel National Road Safety Authority, which offer solutions. But, why study or research these things when you can go straight to people’s wallets and (wink wink) make some friends in the process? Because, you know, families these days are drowning in cash…

@Sean says “Finally, I haven’t seen anything that indicates that a driver is deprived of the right to challenge a ticket.”
.
Sean: Existing law in New York already bars challenging hardware, ie you can’t even ask the last time the cop’s radar gun was calibrated. That means these cameras are already immune to challenge by the people being fleeced by whatever unscrupulous calibration or miscalibration the city sets to raise revenue.

Politicians of all stripes, including some purportedly “progressives”, have all figured out that it is a lot easier to loot the middle class than to go after the rich and powerful. They know that it is cheaper for us to pay all of these fines and licenses and fees than to challenge them in court through an attorney, thus the money grab. It’s about ripping us off, folks, not about safety. Do a little research before you come on here all self-righteous implying that all drivers are just going nuts running through red lights. It’s a moronic statement. Driving is a situational behavior.

I’ve almost been run down multiple times walking home by drivers speeding through red lights or failing to yield to pedestrians as they turn onto a road, only once was there a police officer there to witness it, and as the woman gave me a nasty look when she had to slam on her brakes to avoid hitting me the red lights came on behind her to pull her over as I just pointed and laughed. It’s always downtown, it’s probably the same drivers most of the time, and I think after a ticket or two it will sink in that it’s too expensive to speed through a red light to get to work a whole two minutes earlier. If the city can make money off of people breaking the law I’m all for it. Bad driving behaviour can be modified by punishment, it’s better than the bad driver only learning their lesson after killing someone in an accident.

home guru just travel up central avenue it took me 17 minutes at 715 am to get from lark street to colonie center, reason these stupid lights and there timing. I saw at least six violations of people xing against the light, and in the middle of blocks, what is your explanation for that other than laziness, rules apply in both directions. these rip off cameras will be a joke, especially when the first do process law suit comes in. You are not in the car with any driver, you first action is to avoid an action, if someone is tailgating you which happens a lot, and you stomp on brakes guess what bam………easier to avoid an accident by skipping ayellow sometimes how do you prove that on a camera. you dont…now it goes to court, and who is your accuser